Keep The Fight Moving: Downtown Boys on 'Public Luxury' And Creating Community on Tour
Thursday, 02 July 2026
Written by Laura Johnson
Photo: Ebru Yildiz
Victoria Marie turns the camera away from herself, the Zoom window revealing a pile of norteño ballad tapes that belonged to her grandmother. They were one of many sources of inspiration that Downtown Boys’ vocalist and co-founder called on while making their formidable new album ‘Public Luxury’, slotting the folk tradition alongside literary and political figures such as Palestinian activist Leila Khaled, Chinese-American writer R.F. Kuang, Che Guevara and, “anything Sally Rooney, especially Intermezzo,” Marie says.
These Providence punk-rockers are a well-read and well-intentioned bunch who’ll have you moving at the gig and updating your reading list straight after. The follow-up to 2017’s ‘Cost Of Living’ finds them nutshelling their political and personal commentary into hip-shaking rallying cries, all the while continuing to expand their sonic palette to beautifully shambolic effect. Drums are now higher in the mix, while their melodies are carried in a dance between saxophones and prominent synths over layers of instrumentation — check out the gnarly breakdown on You’re A Ghost and you’ll get it.
The seeds for the new record were unknowingly planted when recording songs for the soundtrack to Miss Marx, a 2020 film about German philosopher and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx's youngest daughter, Eleanor. With Covid meaning they’d had to hit pause on their plans, including a tour of China in 2020, getting back in the studio for this project was the catalyst they needed.
Guitarist-vocalist Joey La Neve DeFrancesco went on to pen new tracks Sirena, You’re A Ghost and Albuterol soon after. In 2021 the band played shows here and there in Italy and Mexico while the album started to take shape, but thanks to the five members living across four American states, with only saxophonist-synth player Joe DeGeorge still residing in Rhode Island where the band formed, it took a minute.
“Covid really derailed my songwriting process,” explains DeFrancesco. “For a while, I think some people had a version of Covid where they suddenly had a lot of free time and were able to focus on stuff, but for me at least it was very disruptive. And then getting involved in a lot of organising even more so during that time period, so it took a while to write everything and to get those songs ready.
“We’re a band that has always gone into the studio with all of the songs, we’re not really writing in the studio. So it took a while to get these together, so these songs represent a timespan of a few years here, through multiple administrations of the United States. But obviously there is a lot of constancy in terms of what’s going on in our country.”
Recording at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, DeFrancesco stepped up to co-produce alongside the studio’s in-house producer and co-owner Seth Manchester, whose venue/studio they played numerous times in their early years and who co-produced the first Downtown Boys release. With Lambrini Girls, Lightning Bolt and Model/Actriz now also on Manchester’s resume, the opportunity to work with him was one they’re aware may only have been possible thanks to their supportive label Sub Pop, who continue to bang the drum for the band even when the internet has become a far-right hellscape.
“I have so much gratitude to Sub Pop,” says Victoria. “With the consolidation of the media and this really big overlap between pre-fascism and an attack on civil liberties and journalism, it really does feel like it’s so hard to pierce any sort of light through these walls when it comes to information. I really do have so much gratitude to Sub Pop and to everything they’re doing to help get our record out there. Frankly, I don’t know if a lot of people would be able to even know about the music if we didn’t have their help.
“We wouldn’t have got to record in that studio with him [Manchester] if it wasn’t for that. And I think it goes to what the album is called, ‘cos one day I do hope that, especially in America, there’s more resources and public opportunities to fund the arts. If there was a band of five kids that really believed in the proletariat and someone like me who’s a Chicano artist raised by my mum and my grandma who wanted to make something, that there would be the resources so you could do that. That’s what ‘Public Luxury’ means, that there’s everything for everyone. We’re really lucky, and I hope that one day there’s resources for everyone who puts the effort and desire behind it.”
Throughout ‘Public Luxury’ there are moments that feel like everything is unravelling, until a returning melody or riff brings it all back into focus. It’s very intentional, says DeFrancesco, who admits the band are always trying to capture the energy of their live shows: “I think that’s been our goal recording for a while, from the beginning of our band. I think we imagined it as a live experience or for us.
“There’s a chaos that leads to maybe confusion of where sounds are coming from, but can also help bring about the kind of emotional catharsis and effect that we’re going for live. So I think some of those elements on the record bring us closer to that.”
Reflecting this creative expansion, Victoria observes their lyrical approach has evolved beyond a creative collage. “I think this album is a little bit different,” she explains. “[I am] thinking of characters more in the song. I think we’re really a band that has these anthemic slogan lyrics and it’s really special, and some of my favourite poetry has that quality, but then we’re integrating that into a character.”
Yellow Sun, for example, was written about the ongoing invasion of Lebanon by Israel, and was influenced by Lebanese-American poet and painter Etel Adnan, whereas Albuterol was a complete invention by DeFrancesco, who cites Spanish poet, playwright and director Federico García Lorca as an influence as well as Nine Inch Nails, Fucked Up, Pharoah Sanders, and Yasmine Hamdan. Bassist Mary Regalado, meanwhile, was listening to Bad Bunny, Tokischa, Cupcakke, Rochelle Jordan and Kelela, and drummer Joey Doubek was taking inspiration from the video game Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom, the 1956 James Baldwin novel Giovanni’s Room, Patti Smith’s memoirs, choral works and ambient music.
Even with these wide-ranging tastes, political justice and freedom at their core, they understand there’s a balance to be struck between entertainment and education, acknowledging the tightrope between contributing to an imperfect industry without being complicit in its artistically detrimental practices .“I do think it’s really tough,” admits Victoria. “But we believe in this bigger ideology and movement, and I think the balance comes through [in] the organising, realising that we are also workers and are agents of these economies and have power.
“So, that’s the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers [co-founded by DeFrancesco alongside a large group including Damon Krukowski and Sadie Dupuis] being able to have ways to fight against a lot of the structures that are trying to suppress or repress artists and voices. Being part of these movements has really helped to move what we’re talking about onstage forward, while recognising that it sucks that a lot of our tickets are going to be sold on Ticketmaster. So, yes, if you put us on the Women In Punk Spotify playlist we’re not going to say no. We want more people to hear our music and message. So we’re reckoning with these inherent contradictions that are always going to exist under capitalism while realising that we can break through.”
When Stereoboard interviewed Joey and Victoria nearly a decade ago about their second album ‘Cost Of Living’, Victoria said: “‘Full Communism’ [their debut LP] was more talking about that ocean that people are throwing us into and ‘Cost of Living’ is what the swim is like.” So, how does ‘Public Luxury fit into that metaphor?
“I think ‘Public Luxury’ is that liminal space where the water and sand meet and you realise that it’s actually OK to have vision and dreams in both,” she explains. “That very small moment where devastation and desire are so hand in hand you’re able to recognise the devastation while turning to desire for something more for everyone.
"To get doorknocked by a centrist Dem and being able to say that you’re going to vote for a socialist that’s going to abolish ICE and Free Palestine, that’s the only liminal moment in anything that we need right now.”
Following summer shows with Gang Of Four and Pop Music Fever Dream, Downtown Boys will return to the UK and Europe this winter for a headline tour, with the run including stops in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham and Bristol. Despite the tumultuous political climate, the band are committed to creating a unifying, collective experience at their live shows, during a time when many feel detached from their community and the challenges of hitting the road are only growing.
“As an artist, it’s certainly much harder to do tours now than it ever has been,” DeFrancesco admits. “There’s an enormous material economic difference between 10 years ago and now, in terms of music press becoming monopolised, music venues becoming monopolised, the consumption of music being more monopolised. So we’ve seen a hollowing out of venues and music scenes and the number of bands in cities across the country, particularly in smaller cities. Just constructing the tour and doing it is harder for all of those reasons, as well as increased costs.
“But I think we’re turning to similar themes in terms of the attitude in the country, of people feeling very depressed and desperate, and some of that turning to cynicism and nihilism a lot of times. But also a constant need to be pushing back against that, to understand the necessity of continuing to believe we can improve things. Also that you have to, even if you don’t believe that. It can happen in the moment, there’s a responsibility to ourselves and to the world to keep pushing on that front.”
‘Public Luxury’ is out now via Sub Pop.
Downtown Boys Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Fri December 04 2026 - AMSTERDAM Paradiso (Netherlands)
Sun December 06 2026 - DIKSMUIDE 4AD (Belgium)
Mon December 07 2026 - LONDON Moth Club
Tue December 08 2026 - CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms
Wed December 09 2026 - EDINBURGH Mash House
Thu December 10 2026 - GLASGOW Stereo
Fri December 11 2026 - NOTTINGHAM Old Bus Depot
Sat December 12 2026 - BRISTOL Exchange
Mon December 14 2026 - PARIS Le Chinois (France)
Tue December 15 2026 - BRUSSELS Botanique (Belgium)
Wed December 16 2026 - TRIER Mergener Hof (Germany)
Thu December 17 2026 - DUDINGEN Bad Bonn (Switzerland)
Fri December 18 2026 - RAVENNA Bronson (Italy)
Sat December 19 2026 - VERONA Kroen (Italy)
Sun December 20 2026 - BUSTO ARSIZIO Gagarin (Italy)
Mon December 21 2026 - ROME Monk (Italy)
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